We have two parties per Olbermann, Americans and republicans.

First, any claim of executive privilege won't work -- because Trump, by discussing the matter publicly, has waived any argument that the privilege should apply. Furthermore, the Supreme Court ruled in United States v. Nixon that executive privilege can't be used to protect criminal behavior by the government and in any event is available only to protect classified or national security materials, not merely information that they just want to keep private.

Additionally, now that Comey is a private citizen, Trump has no leverage over him. If Comey says screw you, I'm testifying, Trump can't do anything to him because he's already been fired. If a court issued an order preventing him from testifying that would be different, but since executive privilege isn't a good argument, that won't happen.

post is wrong per what I am reading.

I am not personally saying you are wrong I am only going by what I read and heard.

He can DO it by doing it, maybe months down the line a court overturns it.

He wont be testifying, but god do I hope I am wrong, I really do...I want to be.

He can exert EP and stop it now, that could be over turned but when? Again, boy do I want to be wrong.

What I am absolutely right about is he will try to do this, no matter how it looks, because he is a criminal and Putin is telling what to do and he does what he is told.

But he isn't one now. He's already been fired so there's nothing Trump can do to him. And, neither Comey nor the Senate panel has received a notice that the WH intends to claim the privilege, which would be required. More reasons here:

"As Mark Rozell, an expert on the subject, told ABC News, Trump would have to claim that it was in the public interest to prevent his discussions with Comey from going public.

“The president would have to make the case that if Comey divulges information, it would cause undue public harm by compromising national security or an ongoing investigation,” said Rozell, who literally wrote the book on executive privilege.

Since the conversations that interest Congress concern Trump’s attempt to pressure Comey into ending the investigation into Michael Flynn, it would be hard for Trump to make either of the above arguments.

Some have argued that Trump has already waived his right to claim executive privilege by speaking publicly about his conversations with Comey. Trump has made public details about the conversations in the publicly released letter firing Comey and in an interview with NBC’s Lester Holt." http://nymag.com/daily/intelligencer/2017/06/can-trump-silence-comey-by-claiming-executive-privilege.html

And:

"Trump likely would argue that Comey's testimony involves confidential conversations or matters of national security. But that claim would be undercut by the fact that the president has publicly discussed and tweeted about his conversations with Comey, said Rozell.

Trump faces another hurdle if he tries to block Comey's testimony. If Trump pressured Comey to drop the Flynn investigation, as Comey is expected to testify, then Trump may have engaged in obstruction of justice, according to some lawyers. Executive privilege cannot be used to "cover up government misconduct," said Andrew Wright, a professor at Savannah Law School.

Typically a president uses executive privilege to prevent government employees from releasing information. Comey is now a private citizen who does not have to worry about losing his job if he does not comply. Rozell said he knows of no legal sanction for ignoring an assertion of executive privilege, but that it would be "unprecedented" for an assertion of the privilege to be ignored." http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-trump-russia-factbox-idUSKBN18T1OB

And: United States v. Nixon, https://scholar.google.com/scholar_case?case=5132513257326080850&hl=en&as_sdt=6&as_vis=1&oi=scholarr

Trump might try it just to delay the testimony, but he'll fail.

Would it make a difference if he was?

I suppose the WH could try to quash a subpoena but I don't think they would get very far.

What if the committee Republicans say Trump's objection is valid and call off the hearing?

happens to be. This is in addition to what ocelot is saying.
Trump is screwed seven ways from Sunday on this and Nixon has helped to sink him.

have been turned over to Mueller already, I read. So, if Comey is shut down, can Mueller speak up about those memos? Jefferson Beauregard Sessions is a little creep. A small "man" with a big name.

He just strikes me as being a little smarmy.

Smile to your face and stick a knife in your back.

when he refused to sign the blood oath, he was dismissed, with a retroactively manufactured reason for it. Very common among poorly trained supervisors.

letter to the republicans in the House, and kept silent while the house republicans, and the media LIED about that letter, characterizing it as the email investigation was being reopened

Comey was no where to be found to correct the misinformation being propagated by by the republicans and the media, until late Friday, the weekend before the general election.

I hope he is angry, and I hope he doesn't hold back with the conversation he had with trump, where trump told him to lay off the Russian investigation. However, his behavior when he ignored the AG telling him NOT to release that letter 11 days before the election, is a disgrace.

In addition, did Jason Chaffetz violate the law by making that letter public?

but nobody has ever accused him of being dishonest; on the contrary, he has a reputation for scrupulous honesty. That reputation will certainly bolster the impact of his testimony.

it got Donald Trump elected. What he did was inconsistent with liberal democracy.

correcting that misinformation that was spread by the House republicans and the media.

He could have clarified that misinformation with a simple statement to the press, but he choose not to.

He was also dishonest by directly disobeying the AG, and not telling her that he was going to send the letter regardless.

I don't care what kind of reputation he has, Comey whipsawed the election for President for no reason. He did NOT wait to see what that information was before sending the letter, he assumed possible impropriety, and 11 days before an election, that is dishonest.

In addition, after his agents looked through the emails and decided there was nothing there, and they were duplicates of what had already been seen, he just issued a brief statement that there was nothing to see, without any details. Let's leave it to the American public's imagination.

In my book, that is dishonest.

Sometimes FBI Directors have more than one pressing items on their desks. When Comey announced he was reopening the Clinton email investigation because of new information, it was because a new dimension had opened up. That new dimension was an investigation being conducted by a NY prosecutor into Weiner and child sex trafficking. Some of the emails the NY prosecutor had he felt pertained to Comey's DC investigation, and so he sent them to be included with Comey's file.

However, the information in the Weiner NY file was so disturbing the NY prosecutor told Comey he had two weeks to start making arrests, and if he (Comey) did not do so, he (the NY prosecutor would call a press conference and tell the public about the new developments). So the new information Comey was referring to really had very little to do with Clinton and everything to do with Weiner.

Comey was obligated to tell Congress about the new information because he had already testified under oath. At the end of his testimony, he said he would let Congress know if anything additional developed. That is why he wrote that letter to Congress, but had he not informed them as he swore he would, he could have been held in contempt. Little did he knew that Chaffetz would tweet the letter out to the world.

But in the meantime, Comey was following up on tracking down the pimps trafficking children and young people all over the Country. He held a public press conference with many agents standing behind him who had participated in the arrests of a huge number of sex traffickers and also rescued many young people being exploited. The youngest child rescued was two years old.

Sometimes when such urgent matters occur simultaneously, there is not a lot of time to handle everything perfectly.

Sam

It was a Hatch Act violation.

Besides the fact you wait until you see if the information is pertinent. The bulllshit about the information being so disturbing by the prosecutor had NOTHING to do with Hillary, and he knew it. The FBI had that computer for over a month

The excuse that he was too busy tracking people who abused children to realize the misuse that was being exercised by congress and the media is the lamest excuse I have ever heard. That misinformation was being blasted 27/7 over the airwaves. A simple statement released was all that was necessary. beside the fact that he disobeyed the AG's advice NOT to send that letter 11 days before the election.

You can make all the excuses for him that you want, but he is the person who disobeyed the AG's request, and made trump king. I hope that eats at his craw for a good long time. A brief episode of being "mildly nauseous" doesn't cut it.

The Guy is a straight arrow. He screwed up by being a Company Man and that came back in spades to bite him in the ass.

does not like Donald Trump.

Hillary kicked Donald Trump's ass from one end of the country to the other. She ultimately lost to Comey and Chaffetz.

yes INDEED

... before he was kowtowing to Trump. (well sort of)

Now he has no fucks to give, and he's mad as hell!

special counsel?

Giving Rosenstein benefit of doubt, perhaps he wanted to get rid of Comey, not to derail the Trump investigation, but because he thought Comey's missteps regarding the Clinton probe indicated that Comey was not or would not be providing the most competent effective oversight of the Trump/Russia probe but could screw it up by not following proper procedures.

But since Trump is likely to appoint an even less competent and more partisan person in place of Comey, Rosenstein knew it was vital for integrity of the investigation for him to appoint the well-respected Mueller as Special Counsel to take the reins or else the Trump/Russia investigation would be totally mishandled and derailed. Rosenstein must have been considering appointing Mueller for a couple of weeks, even before Comey firing or he wouldn't have been able to make the appointment so quickly.

With Nixon...he claimed executive privilege in February, and the Supreme Court decided in May. So that is a three month delay......not what we want, for sure, but it could be worse. In the end, he will lose.

He may as well try to delay things as long as possible.....why not? He knows he is caught, knows he is totally screwed, and he is throwing whatever hay-makers he has at his disposal, regardless of the fact that they will not work.

In the end, his only weapons will be whipping up the maniacs who will support him no matter what.....the other weapon being a corollary of the first.....blaming it on Obama and the "deep state". Yes...he is hoping to wiggle out of this due to public support. We'll see.....

So, there's no reason the question should be litigated for nine months as in 1973-74 (it had to go through the whole federal court system). First, executive privilege can't be used to hide evidence of criminal or wrongful acts, which is exactly what the Senate panel and Bob Mueller are looking into; and furthermore, executive privilege can be used only to protect national security matters or information that would cause harm to the country if disclosed. The WH will get nowhere claiming executive privilege. Anyhow, they really can't do anything to stop Comey from testifying; since he's already been fired, Trump can't threaten to fire him.

We wouldn't even BE in this mess now!

just think how pissed they would have been if the decision not to
prosecute had come from AG Lynch after her meeting with Bill in the airplane

public servant who is a straight arrow. No, he is an ambitious back-stabber. Sleazeball who probably thought he would get the post.

As the orange shartstain later made clear. I can't wait to hear Coney's testimony.

I am DYING to hear what he has to say, but I hope to God he doesn't show too much "anger" in his testimony.

"The failure to flag any such concerns to Comey before terminating him is part of what makes the former FBI director feel so blindsided. It's also part of the story he's planning to tell lawmakers"

Personally I'd rather that not be turned into a Republican talking point to dispute the rest of what he says.

which he fired Comey.

all in radio!

That happened to too many people I knew and worked with, and to me as well. You're going along, doing your job, nobody says anything or indicates anything is wrong. You might even get a memo from the new boss about what a great thing they heard you do on the air the other day. And then WHAM! You've been canned. Outta the blue. You haven't lived til you've learned via office gossip and/or read it in the trades that you've been replaced - before anybody in upper management gets around to letting you know.

Not that I'm excusing anybody or any aspect of the Sessions/Rosenstein/Comey affairs.

It just made me snicker - "gee, sounds like they were all working at the same radio station."